Eighteen generations ago, special ancient samurai warriors called the Shinkenger were authorized by the Japanese Emperor to defend their country against the Gedoushuu monsters from the mythical Sanzu River. The Shinkenger succeeded, and the Gedoushuu were defeated. Hundreds of years later in 2009, the Gedoushuu have slowly rebuilt themselves, and they are slipping through all dark crevasses once more to collect human screams to flood the Sanzu River into the world for their return. Takeru Shiba, the current samurai lord of the Shiba Clan, now summons four vassal samurai from different clans, and arms them with the magical scripture power known as mojikara to become the new Samurai Sentai Shinkenger!

[Ugh… Once again, Toei has cut off video sites from streaming English fan-subbed versions of “Samurai Sentai Shinkenger” (2009) because they claim it is copyright infringement. Thus I cannot provide my own summary of the episode! Stingy company- HOW ELSE CAN I WATCH AND ENJOY ONE OF YOUR SHOWS!? You don’t sell DVDs with English subtitles on your own; if you did, I’d buy them! So, the following summary comes from Wikipedia’s entry on Act 17- “The Sushi Samurai”, which in-turn was translated directly from TV-Asashi’s own official Shinkenger website...]

“Returning after what seemed to be a false detection of an Ayakashi attack on the Gap Sensor, the Shinkenger find an arrow with a note on it that says "Coming Soon" with Takeru sensing something from before within the house as it starts to haunt him. Deciding to investigate the Gap Sensor, the vassals encounter a sushi-selling man whose hand writing matches the note. After the seller gives them the slip with spicy sushi, Ryunosuke and Mako go to Shojo Valley to find Takeru while Chiaki and Kotoha track down the sushi seller. By the time they find him, ShinkenBlue and ShinkenPink find Shinken Red confronting the Ayakashi Isagitsune who was spying on Takeru to find out the Shiba sealing character. With his mirror medium destroyed, Isagitsune overwhelms the 3 with his magic as Chiaki and Kotoha coming with the sushi seller following. But even all 5 Shinkenger are no match for Isagitsune as they revert to normal as the seller arrives to their aid, transforming into Shinken Gold. After taking out the Nanashi in blinding speed, Shinken Gold battles Isagitsune and destroys him. When Isagitsune revives, he overpowers Tenku-Shinken-Oh until Shinken Gold enters the fight in the Ika Origami to weaken the Ayakashi so Tenku-Shinken-Oh can land the deathblow. After the fight, Takeru reveals to his vassals that he already knows the sushi seller, Genta Umemori.”

The Ika Origami is a squid. When not in combat, it hangs out in the glass miniature fish stock tank on Genta’s sushi cart, appearing when Shinken Gold attaches the folded Ika Disc onto his Sushi Changer. Though a water-based creature, it can fly through the air, using its five tentacles to ‘scoot’ and hover. Like a real squid, it can grab onto and pummel Ayakashi monsters with its tentacles, or squirt a cloud of black gas (Squid Ink Cannon) into the air as a distraction or to uncover invisible forces.
To control the Ika Origami, Shinken Gold boards it, and places the Ika Disc onto his Sakanamaru, which he then placed into the command console.

Ika Origami (squid)

The Ika Disc is stored on the ‘back’ of the head just like in the show, and the two smaller sections can fold out the same way.
Each tentacle has one axis of motion and they all ratchet a limited number of positions. The two larger arms, however, are restricted in their downward motion by the base of the three regular arms.

The two larger arms can be raised, and then the three smaller ones can spin around on their combined base!

Due to the transformation process, the little ink jet on the ‘top’ of the head can flip up and down a bit, though it does not shoot anything.

The Ika Disc can be placed onto the Hiden Saiseitou ShinkenMaru. When it is spun, you see the black silhouette of the Ika spinning around in place! (Chh, barely- two large separation lines seriously interrupt the animation!)

I opened the box, put the toy together, and my first reaction was, “Whoa- big!” It is definitely bigger than the previous three Samurai Gattai Series sets. It also has more poseability- way more- even if it is just one joint per arm. The spinning lower arms was vaguely reminiscent of a drill without being obviously so. And, oh look at this- no Hiden Disc-powered gimmick! (WTF-!?) I am bummed out a little that the larger arms can’t get past the base of the three smaller ones, but I guess having them move at all should be sufficient to quench my thirst for poseable sub-mecha… And even though they didn’t have to, I appreciate the extra suckers detail they put under each tentacle.

Compared to the Kabuto, Kajiki, and Tora Origami, the Ika Origami just feels unrestricted, allowing transformation joints to bend in animal-like ways that the others’ couldn’t. It also, oddly, doesn’t have a Hiden Disc gimmick. (Is that good or bad? It’s hard to say, in my opinion…)

“After the appearance of Shinken Gold, the vassals learn from Jii that Genta was a childhood friend of Takeru whom he obtained Ika Origami from. Before Takeru could explain why, Genta arrives late to declare himself a samurai under Takeru. As Takeru takes a step out, Genta reveals that he has been training himself for this moment before Jii takes the Sushi Changer from him. As the Shinkenger take their leave upon the Gedoushu making their move, Takeru breaks his friend's heart by refusing to accept him as an ally. After nearly losing to the vengeful Ayakashi Hyakuyappa before he falls back into the Sanzu River, Takeru is confronted by the Vassals and Genta confront Takeru on his reasons for turning Genta before Hyakuyappa resumes his attack. Remembering the promise he made with Genta years ago, Takeru acknowledges his friend as a Shinkenger. While the vassals deal with the Nanashi, Shinken Red and Shinken Gold combine their signature moves to destroy Hyakuyappa. After Hyakuyappa revives, Shinkenoh has a hard time until Ika Origami arrived and combines onto Shinken-Oh to form Ika Shinken-Oh who freezes the Ayakashi before destroying him. Soon after the fight, the gang celebrates their newest ally by eating out at the Gold Sushi cart.”

The Ika Shinken-Oh is armed with a bladed shield on the right forearm that can use the Squid Spear Line attack. The left hand holds another shield-like weapon that can project a blast of ice (Squid Freezing) to freeze Ayakashi in their tracks. The finishing attack draws lightning to the arms on its back, which channel into the shield on the left forearm for a series of rapid physical strikes, called Squid Flash.

The left weapon does nothing but hang on the left hand, while the Ika Origami’s head fins can spring forward a little as part of the Squid Spear Line attack. Additionally, because of its size, the left arm cannot be lowered straight down when holding the weapon.

Oh, come on--! Another trend change in the toy line!? First, the Hiden Disc doesn’t activate anything like it did in the last three samurai busou combos, and now we don’t get a new headdress. You’re telling me those larger tentacle arms couldn’t have formed some epic antlers or something for another helmet? And also, what the hell is that thing in the left hand? A shield? A bladed weapon? I honestly don’t know; all it does in the series is shoot frozen air, and that’s it. On top of which, it’s so big and inflexible that the arm can’t drop down.

Okay, it’s about time a samurai busou got a shield, but, this one really doesn’t do it for me. AND, the Hiden Disc doesn’t turn to activate the attack gimmick. I like the spear-thingie, but why wasn’t it disc-activated like the previous three were (Kabuto Shinken-Oh, Kajiki Shinken-Oh, Tora Shinken-Oh)?

Y- no, not a good upgrade. It’s not a giant headdress, but the Ika Shinken-Oh is actually worse because it doesn’t know what the hell it is! It’s just there, and that is NEVER good enough.

[REVIEWER’S NOTE: since I will not be covering the DX Samurai Kyojin Daikai-Oh for CollectionDX, I also cannot review the Samurai Busou Ika Daikai-Oh combination. I apologize for the inconvenience!]

The Ika-Tenkuu Buster makes its debut alongside the Shin Samurai Gattai Daikai-Shinken-Oh super combo in Act 24- “The True Samurai Combination”. While seen mostly with the Daikai-Shinken-Oh in the series for the finishing attack Origami Grand Release, the Ika-Tenkuu Buster is not restricted in such a way in its toy form. It is a giant energy/spirit-projection cannon mounted atop a tripod, but can only be used once in battle due to the overwhelming drain of mojikara on the six Shinkenger required to fire it.

The only feature of the Ika-Tenkuu Buster is the Origami Grand Release finisher. This is achieved more-or-less the same way as the DaiTenkuu Daigekitotsu from the three-component Samurai Gattai DaiTenkuu- simply release the catch levers on the Kabuto’s horn and Kajiki’s nose, and then spin the dial on top. Because the Ika Origami component does not connect to the internal gearing of the Tora Origami like the others do, it does not do anything new.

Yeah- this is why you get the Ika Origami, so that you can finish off this ugly monstrosity… The few tabs on the Tora that went unused on the DaiTenkuu were bound to be used for a later super combo, but for an expanded DaiTenkuu??? Didn’t see that one coming. I will say, though, that the Ika’s parts latch together rather nicely to the rest of the DaiTenkuu.

It’s interesting that 1- this isn’t an independently-operating mecha like the DaiTenkuu, which is composed of independently-operated mecha; and 2- there is nothing for the Daikai-Shinken-Oh (or any other samurai kyojin robo) to hang on to, so you aren’t limited to one combination of ten mecha. (It would have been nice, though, if there had been some generic handles-or-something for them to hang on to…)
What isn’t interesting, though, is that PLEX and Bandai worked so hard (err… not really) to get the Kabuto, Kajiki, and Tora to link up for that combined spinning-Hiden Disc-gimmick that they then turned around and completely neglected to work the Ika into the equation! (Know what they coulda done, in my opinion? Leave a hole in the top of the Tora so that a rubber cog under the Ika could link up with it. That way when the Discs spun, the spear head could bounce back-and-fourth just like it does in the series. SEE HOW EASY THAT WAS, PLEX-!?)

So, the Ika Origami becomes part of combinations that should never have been in the first place because they don’t know what they are, why they exist, or what to do with themselves. If you don’t like the DaiTenkuu, then you may not have a reason to get the Ika Origami.

Comments

See, this is the reason why I never bothered to buy an add-on Origami from Shinkenger. This toy and the other so-called Origamis definitely kills the "Origami" concept of the toy line. It's unfortunate that only Shinken-Oh was the only one to adopt such a gimmick.

Yes, quite a shame. As I said in my video, if they had been consistent with the whole line, and also kept them all "origami" just like the mecha in the Shinken-Oh, this could have been a really exciting toy line. It's a shame they'll never be able to do that again, and folding paper is now unique to just the Shinkenger world.

i have the shinkenger mecha complete, except for daigoyou and i'm quite happy with Ika. while the combinations are a bit wacky, i do like him as a separate display piece, which all the accessory origami will be on my shelves.
he looks good as a squid just by himself, and displaying the busou-origami separately keeps them from disturbing the looks of the robots themselves.

on a side note, if you want to see shinkenger, i suggest downloading tv-nihon's subbed versions. they're quite high-quality and they have the whole series on megaupload. it'll take you at max a week to download all the episodes